Here is this week's Trifecta challenge. Below is the word and definition we had to use. Click on the icon below to read other entries.
The Secret
They didn’t have words for what they couldn’t see. They knew
the rains came; they knew the storms lashed their giant trees: they knew the
lightening broke on the winding waters around them. They knew the sun rose in a
whirl of misty yellows. They knew the sun set in a myriad of fiery reds. They
knew everything about their world and its shadows. But they knew nothing beyond
their green horizon. What they couldn’t see was simply the past.
Only Huachawaca knew, had seen. He would only speak of the time
he fought the white man when his bones grew cold and he believed his ancestors
were coming for him. They never did. He was as strong as the trees, and had
seen as much.
The white men were ghosts, cloaked in different colours. They
brought terrifying sounds. They moved differently; like they came from a forest
which bore different fruit, different materials. They carried obscure objects.
The white man was always looking for something. Huachawaca and his brothers
gave them their poison. He didn’t know how many years ago it was.
Huachawaca’s great-grandson crouched on his heels, chin on
his knees, facing the old man. His hands were tucked into his thighs. Puji
listened. He wanted to know why he was afraid.
We band together
against the white man because we are this forest. Like the vines that wrap the
trees, making everything one and the same. White man doesn’t understand this.
White man looks for something else. He doesn’t understand it is all this here:
our soul, our land.
The fire crackled. Palms swayed in the breeze. Monkeys could
be heard settling. It would soon rain.
Puji kept his hands closed. Inside he held a secret. He knew
it was the first secret like it of his tribe. He had no other word for it. But
the secret hurt. The green, jacket button pressed into his palm hurt;
like a misunderstanding, a wrong footstep in the jungle.
330 words
BAND (verb) 1: to affix a band
to or tie up with a band
2: to finish or decorate with a
band
3: to gather together : unite
